Phosphate

How to spell phosphate

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce phosphate

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does phosphate mean?

1. nounA salt or ester of phosphoric acid, widely used in fertilisers, detergents, and food additives.

Phosphate in a sentence

• The fertiliser bag lists a high phosphate content for root growth.

• Manufacturers reduced the phosphate in detergents to protect rivers.

Where does phosphate come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This is a chemistry term built on the name of the element phosphorus, which itself comes from the Greek phosphoros, meaning 'light-bearing' or 'bringer of light', from phos 'light' and phoros 'bearing'. The element was so named because white phosphorus glows faintly in the dark, an eerie property that fascinated early chemists. The suffix -ate is the standard chemical ending used to mark a salt or ester of an acid, in this case phosphoric acid. The word was coined by chemists in the early nineteenth century as the science of naming compounds took shape. The 'ph' spelling, pronounced as an 'f', is the classic Greek-derived signal and is the main trap, since the word contains it twice yet sounds like plain 'f' both times.

How the word is built

• phosph- (from phosphorus, light-bearing)
• -ate (chemical suffix for a salt or ester)